The marijuana business is exploding but there's one tiny catch: Many businesses can't get loans. Enter David Dinenberg.

Why I Started A Financial-Services Firm for Pot

Most of us chase the American dream, so we know the drill: Think up an idea, gather our thoughts into a business plan, put our tax returns in order, then it's off to a bank.

But for the hundreds of entrepreneurs chasing the dream in what has become what some are calling the fastest growing industry in America, there is a major roadblock. Medical marijuana is legal in 24 states and Washington DC and also recreationally legal in four of those as well. At least a dozen more states have laws on the books or are about to be signed into law.

But marijuana is not legal federally. Like heroin and LSD, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Federally, marijuana is restricted in all forms — including medical marijuana research. So banks, which contend with interstate commerce, can't give a loan even in those 24 states. Same with Small Business Association (SBA) loans.

he bipartisan proposal in the Senate by Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) would not legalize medical marijuana in all 50 states. Rather, it would respect the states that set their own medical marijuana programs and prevent federal law enforcement from prosecuting patients, doctors and caregivers in those states.

So, for financing, even in the 24 states where it's legal, cannabis entrepreneurs either raise the initial start-up money from friends or family, or take the road show route or dig into their own pockets.

I, too, chase the legal cannabis dream. Without personal resources, I put together a business plan and pounded the pavement. Lucky for me, I found the rare investors who share my vision and provided a seed investment so I could start Kind Financial. Kind Financial is the first full-service financial solutions resource strictly for the cannabis industry.

For the past decade, we have been looking for an industry to evolve as global outsource renders as obsolete so many U.S. industries. Now we have a winner. Cannabis has already generated billions in revenue, hundreds of millions in tax generation, tens of thousands of jobs. And it's made in America. Cannabis could be — and should be — a macroeconomic solution for the United States. But when and if the U.S. removes cannabis from Schedule 1 is anyone's guess.

David Dinenberg is founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Kind Financial, a financial-resource providing a financial solutions for the cannabis industry. A former real estate developer from Philadelphia who is no stranger to raising capital, he's using his skills to help companies in the legal cannabis industry that are being denied basic business services. David is building Kind Financial to be the "GE Capital" of the legal marijuana industry. Follow him on Twitter @daviddinenberg.

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. . . "Since the industry still operates largely as a black market, it is impossible to come up with more accurate numbers. "I truly believe no one knows how much revenue takes place in this industry," says David Dinenberg, founder and CEO of Kind Financial, a West Hollywood financial services and payment company. "All we have are vague projections and estimates from analyst firms and industry publications, but I’m not sold on the current valuation of the market."

Whatever the current size of the market, Dinenberg is convinced that it will continue growing. He launched Kind Financial to go beyond equity investments and to roll out an array of financial solutions for the cannabis industry, like debt and payment systems. He has already raised $2.5 million to get started on this project and has hired a team of highly skilled lawyers to help circumvent the many legal pitfalls of the industry. "It’s very difficult to get a loan as a cannabis entrepreneur," Dinenberg explains. "You actually have to be liquid, bring in friends and family, or raise money from private equity."

Banking’s a bummer for legal marijuana industry, but David Dinenberg has a budding solution

The UpTake: David Dinenberg wants to be the legal marijuana industry's banker. But for now, he's building a payment platform geared to replace cash as the only way to pay for pot. Full story is here

David Dinenberg David Dinenberg moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to start Kind Financial, which is about to launch a payment platform for the legal marijuana business.

" . . . [Dinenberg] has attracted believers, and cash, to his cause. Kind has raised about $2 million from angel investors including Lindy Snider, the daughter of Comcast Spectator Chairman Ed Snider. . . “I think he’s a hybrid. He’s someone that came from a very traditional business model. But he’s an entrepreneurial guy. Like most entrepreneurs he doesn’t see the problems he sees the solutions,” she said. “They don’t get stopped by things people say can’t be done. I like that very much about David. He’s very determined. The fact is that they came up with an idea that’s very simple. It’s usually the simplest business ideas that have the most value.”

As for Dinenberg, right now he’s head down working on Kind Pay. But he hasn’t lost sight of the original goal: To be the cannabis industry’s ultimate financial provider.

“My eye will always be on the prize of buying or forming a bank,” he said. “I only see growth. I only see this industry getting larger, getting more structured and frankly getting more regulated. I truly believe this is going to be a global industry just like any other … this is not even the ground floor. This is the basement.”

Global equity funds inflows tracking to record: TrimTabs

NEW YORKTue Apr 14, 2015 11:22am EDT

(Reuters) - Global equity mutual and exchange-traded funds have so far this year pulled in net inflows of $81.5 billion, putting them on track to beat a four-month record high of $86 billion set nine year ago, TrimTabs Investment Research said on Tuesday.

Global equity mutual funds and ETFs surged to a record $34.8 billion in March, edging past the previous monthly record of $34.4 billion in January 2013, TrimTabs data showed.

These funds raked in $14.8 billion this month through Friday, and look likely to have the best four-month run of inflows since December 2005 through March 2006.

“U.S. investors continue to follow the printing presses into European and Japanese equities,” said David Santschi, chief executive officer of TrimTabs. “A record that has been held for nine years is almost sure to fall.”